He doesn't have the rights to The Silmarillion and so he can't make a movie based from it. As far as I know the Tolkien estate still has the rights and it's probably not very likely they will sell the rights to the book.

JamesSkyrunner wrote:How did he get the rights to the hobbit and LOTR ?

ThorinLongbeard

J.R.R. Tolkien sold The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings rights for film, stage and merchandising to United Artists in 1968. And then, United Artists sold the rights to the Saul Zaents Company in 1976. In 1997 Peter Jackson won the rights after meeting producer Saul Zaents.

It is, first of all, legally almost impossible for the time being; he had a share of mishaps during the pre-production of Hobbit itself, let alone Silm. I'd love to see it done at a certain time in the future.

Let's hope not. I always felt the sillmarilion was special. It is only something that the "true" Tolkien fans know about. But if Peter made the movie then that would ruin the magic of the sillmarilion. Now everyone would have instant satisfaction and Jackson would be rolling in the dough (not that he already isn't). I would hate to see characters like fëanor or fingolfin be replaced by Orlando bloom and I feel the Tolkien estate feels the same way.

Christopher, of course, is adamant that the rights will never be sold, and has almost certainly engineered the succession at the Estate to ensure that his successor is like-minded. That said, I'm actually not sure when The Silmarillion becomes public domain. Is it fifty years after the death of Tolkien Senior, or can Christopher (or even Guy Gavriel Kay) make the case that it ought to be fifty years after their deaths?

If a hypothetical adaptation were to take place (preferably not a Peter Jackson one), it's not the sort of source material that lends itself to a movie. Easier to adapt the individual stories - Beren and Luthien being the obvious candidate, as Turin might be a bit dark for a mainstream audience. Another possibility is turning it into a TV series.